another week down....two more to go???

I've made only a little progress since last week. I'm now 1 cm. "and a wiggle" (as my fun midwife, Sue, puts it) and I'm 60% effaced. 10% thinner than last week!

Sue did say she thinks (what does she know?!?!?!) that I'll go to my due date. My hopes of perhaps going early shot down by a plain old mean comment! Hahaha. I'm teasing of course. I love my midwife -- both of them. I just think it's wrong to tell a 38-week pregnant woman that she has to wait longer...even though she knows damn well that waiting is all she has to do now. It's all a mental game, and I suck at it. Plus, these Braxton-Hicks contractions are driving me CRAZY...I just wish I knew they were doing something then I'd probably -- again, mentally -- handle them better.

These days it's just getting harder for me to keep up with Emma. Even the simplest activity as playing Play-Doh takes its toll. Getting up and down off the floor is not easy...or pretty for those near me! So delivering Maggie sooner than later, although having two kids in the house will be a chore too, will at least get my body feeling 'back to normal' sooner than later.


I'll update next Tuesday after my next appointment...unless I'm given reason to post before then!!! Keep your fingers crossed for me!

Any day now??

I wish!! I know technically I'm not due for another three weeks, but I'm hopeful of the fact that I may go early since this is baby no. 2. I'm so ready to not be pregnant anymore (and of course meet our Maggie Lee). Emma was a very active baby, but Maggie beats me up so bad daily!! It's crazy. I just mentioned to a friend of mine that I hope her actions now aren't indicative of her behavior on 'the outside'!!! I can only hope and pray that Maggie is like her sister in the fact that Emma was an "easy" baby (for the most part) and we were/are really lucky!

So as a quick update of our progress, at my appointment on Monday (I'll be going every week now until I give birth), I was dilated 1 cm. and 50% effaced. Exactly the same as I was with Emma at this point! Let's just hope Maggie, with the help of these terrible Braxton-Hicks contractions, help me progress quicker.

I'll definitely keep everyone better updated as the big day draws near.


**On a side note: BIG Congratulations to my friend Chey and her husband John for the birth of their son, Riley Asher Wilson on August 18th. Also, a second BIG Congratulations to Chey's brother, Trav (who I graduated with) and his wife, Pam for the birth of their son (I don't know his name yet) on August 19th! I'm so happy for you guys!!!

Check Chey and John's blog here, and Trav and Pam's blog here.

Bad Blogger!!!

What's the point of even having a blog if you're not 'blogging'???? I'm going on almost 2 months now...I've got a lot of catching up to do this time!

So my last post mentioned my June appointment with my midwife. At that appointment I had my glucose test, which consists of drinking this highly concentrated sugar drink, waiting an hour, then getting blood drawn to test my body's ability to process the sugar. All is well, I passed the test; however, that day I wasn't the only one hopped up on the sugar drink. It affected Maggie just the same in that her heartbeat was skipping a beat. My midwife scheduled an ultrasound right then and there to check the heart as well as to check her size (since I was still measuring three weeks bigger than what I should have been at). Her heart was structurally perfect, but still skipping a beat...and she only measured a week bigger than the size she should have been.

Since the heartbeat was still skipping, I was scheduled to see a high risk doc just to get a better ultrasound. My midwife said she wasn't "worried" but wanted the second opinion...a "better safe than sorry" type situation. Ended up Maggie was fine. The high risk doctor attributed her skipping heartbeat to the sugar drink...makes total sense!!

Our big girl turned 2 on the 16th of July. Every mom says this, but I can't believe she's 2 already!

On the day of her birthday Ryan took some vacation time and we got pictures taken and then took the birthday girl and her cousins, Bri and Livi, to Chuck E. Cheese's. It was a fun day. We also went to Mandarin House, our favorite Chinese restaurant ever, for dinner.

At her 2-year doctor's appointment she was 24 lbs. 6 ozs., which is in the 40th percentile...and 35 1/2 inches tall, which is the 90th percentile! (Again, she takes after her daddy!)

Emma got her 'big-girl' bed from Mommy and Daddy for her birthday and has done great with the transition. Even to this day we haven't had one problem with her staying in bed. LUCKY!!

Emma's first night in her big-girl bed!

The following Saturday was Em's party, and although it was so very hot, it was a great time and Emma got a lot of nice things from her family.

As for me, I'm still just trying to keep up with everyday life. It is not really that easy being pregnant in the middle of summer with a toddler. As I've mentioned before, I don't have pleasant pregnancies to begin with. I've been in a lot of pain the entire time and I've also been experiencing A LOT of Braxton-Hicks contractions (my body's "practice" contractions for those who don't know what they are). They are not really painful, but definitely uncomfortable. I only had a few here and there while pregnant with Emma, but this time I get them every evening. One night Maggie was fighting back. Every time I would contract, Maggie would push really hard as if to say "stop crowding me!" Now THAT was painful!! And it was a night where I was getting the contractions every 10 minutes...for a good two or three hours! Ugh.

My 35 week pregnant belly:

Today, August 10 (one month to go) was my baby shower. It was a really nice time and Maggie got a lot of nice things. Now we just count down to our due date.

And who knows, at that rate I'm going with this blog, my next post may be Maggie's birth story and pictures of our family of four!!! I'll try not to be that bad, but I can't make any promises!!

Thanks for reading!

ugh...I know!!!

It's been forever and a couple days since the last post. I just never give myself enough time to sit down and write anything good. I have plenty to write about, I just don't.

So here's a quickie:

I've been spending a lot of my 'internet time' on a Northeast Ohio Mom's forum making new online friends and learning a lot of tricks of the trade -- for future reference as Emma gets older and a lot less easy to manage! Don't get me wrong, she's still a very good girl, but in one month from today, she will be turning 2. Along with the age of 2 comes the "terribles" and I don't have a clue what to expect. I guess the old saying "expect the unexpected" is all I have to do. I think that might have been my class motto??

Anyways, in two years I've also forgotten a lot of stuff that goes along with having an infant around. So reading the stories of other new moms out there gives me a quick refresher, "oh yeah, I remember that."

I've also been doing a lot of research -- and again, refreshing -- about breastfeeding. I'm giving nursing a good ol' college try again this time around in hopes that with a better knowledge than last time that it will go a lot better. It didn't necessarily go bad with Emma, I just gave up a lot sooner for reasons I now know I could have fixed.

In other news, Emma continues to amaze us. She's become a little 'repeater' and comes up with all kinds of new words every day. I've already bragged about her ABCs and 123s, she's added 11 and 12 to her numbers and she's also pretty darn good with her colors now, too. She has a little laptop of her very own that's recommended for ages 3+ and she's really good at a lot of the games! She of course needs help with the games that utilize the mouse, and she doesn't know her lower case letters, yet...but she's a smarty pants!

With school out now, I've been getting a lot of help during the day from my two nieces who stay across the street with my mother-in-law during the day. Emma really loves her cousins and they have fun playing outside. They help out a lot with Emma because I just can't chase her around as much as she needs being chased!! I had a painful pregnancy with Emma and it's pretty much the same this time around, so the extra help is WONDERFUL and saves my hips, back and all around pelvic area from total excruciating pain at night. Most nights it's just mildly excruciating! ;)

I have my next appointment with my midwife on Thursday of this week. At my last appointment, my belly had measured 4 weeks ahead of what it should have. I'm anxious to find out what we're measuring at this time around and whether or not she'll schedule an ultrasound to keep a closer eye on Maggie's growth. Emma was on the bigger side at 8 lbs. 5 ozs. not huge by any means, but bigger than what we expected! If Maggie's growing bigger early on, I'd rather know and perhaps get induced early than try to push out a 10 pound baby!!! I'll keep you updated! Sooner than later ;)

Life's a beach!!

Hi all...it's Tuesday night and this is my first time to get online since being down in Fort Myers. We arrived on Saturday around 4:00 p.m. as was the plan. Perfect timing considering check-in time to our house was 4, too! The drive was long and tiring, but our main concern -- being Emma -- turned out to be the least of our concerns as she did a great job for a toddler confined to a car seat for 21 hours! Of course, a good amount of that time she slept since we left at 6:30 p.m. and traveled through the night, but even through awake hours she did good.

Our house is big. Although it's a duplex, our "neighbors" are a really nice couple from Pennsylvania and we hardly see them. The husband spends all day fishing in the ocean and his wife just comes and goes as she pleases. We were worried about having wild, loud neighbors, but that's not the case at all. We don't even have to share the pool with them! Actually, speaking of the pool, we've only been in it twice and it's been in the cooler evening hours. We've spent a lot of time on the beach since it's only feet away from our house and BEAUTIFUL. I, wanting to get sun, didn't apply sunscreen at first and got burnt right away, but not TOO bad. I mean, it's not the most comfortable, but I'm not in agony. Time flies so quickly while on vacation and on the beach -- you know, not a care in the world -- but the sun caught up with me quicker than I thought. NOW I put the sunscreen on!!

We're all having a great time so far. Especially Emma. She is a total beach baby...she takes after her daddy. We can't keep them out of the ocean! She loves the "wawer" and even to bring her out of it to wipe her face or reapply sunscreen is a chore...she runs back towards it yelling "wawer! wawer!" She likes to sit and let the waves crash into her back...the bigger, the better. The harder they hit her, the louder she laughs. It's so cute!

Here are some pictures we've got so far. We took a trip Monday to Sanibel Island to do some shelling. We got quite a few nice shells, and it's a beautiful beach, but it was a bit too rough for Emma and the beach is more shells than sand, so it's not the best environment for a playful toddler.

I will, of course, post again upon our return. Wish us luck for an equally successful drive home!

...and her name is...

Maggie Lee Hamric!

IT'S A GIRL!!!

My original intention was to get a good "between the legs" shot and post it along with another poll for all of you to vote boy or girl based on what you thought you saw in the picture...however, the picture we ended up with is not so easy to decipher. I'm unsure of what I'm looking at and I was there!

Our baby girl is developing perfectly and is right 'on schedule'. Here are a few pictures from our ultrasound...I guess they look just like any other ultrasound pictures, though!!

In this one her mouth is wide open...already hungry!

This is her entire leg stretched out. She won't be able to do this for very long!!!

This is her profile. I think she has Emma's nose and cheeks...but I know it's too early to tell that...just looks like it in this picture!

We got 3D ultrasound images of Emma and plan on doing that again with this baby as well. Those are much better pictures!

This is Emma at, I think, 28 weeks:



Speaking of Emma, she's mastering her letters and numbers. She still has her unique way of saying the numbers 3, 4 and 7 (wewen), though. My mom got video of her counting by herself yesterday, but as soon as I pull my camera out she gets bashful. Today I got a quick video of her counting while on the phone with my mom. I missed her saying 1, and she just decided she didn't feel like saying 10!




A lot of times when she's counting by herself, she keeps going and going and going because she gets so much praise after she reaches 10. Sometimes she even cheats and says "8, 9, 10" but we don't allow that! No cheating! Start at 1 and earn your praise fair and square!! hahaha!


That's all for now....next time I post will probably be after we return from our week's vacation to Fort Myers Beach. We leave a week from today! I cannot wait!!!